how were martial arts born.

[Mark]

Hi guys. I wanna know how did martial arts come into use and when

[atinymonkey]

Do you mean martial arts in Japan, China or the West?

 

Is there a specific martial art that your asking about? Tai Chi, Sun Tzu's The Art of War, The Samurai, Martial arts in Buddhism, The Roman Empire, Strategies in War etc?

[Skye]

Born from an egg on a mountain top

The punkiest monkey that ever popped

He knew every magic trick under the sun

To tease the Gods

And everyone and have some fun

 

Monkey magic, Monkey magic

[atinymonkey]

Come piggy, lets fly - Whup whup , fhhwoosh!!

[Skye]

The shows are surprisingly lecherous when you view them as an adult. Whis is the main reason I have the t-shirt.

[YT2095]

Neccesity, during certain "takeovers" the civilians had all weapons and fighting arts taken away from them and were considered Subdued as a result.

they were not!, they learned to fight using only the tools they were given for their slave type labour but were allowed excersize too, certain form "Katas" such as Tai Chi, done very slowly apeared quite docile, when performed at a faster speed, it became a fighting art, same happened with Karate`(open hand).

the ones not captured developed arts such as Ninjitsu, again when slowed down looks quite placid in the katas, although it`s an art of assasination

primarily, is was borne of subjugated peoples that didn`t like it and did their best "beat the system" using all available tools and deception they could get away with

[Neurocomp2003]

not even that high in the hierarchy...when 2 cave men fight over women and food...they first used fists before weapons...and thus improved on fighting each other and developing techniques...then came weapons...then as societies and civillizations grew ...they began teaching it to each other, passed down, finetuned and creative art results in what we have today. Some for leisure physical activities(tai chi) to embody "body, mind and spirit"...others simply for war and killing.

 

What I really wanna know is how kapuiea came into existence...

i can see that it probably came from an animal fighting style as some chinese kungfu copies...but I mean the flipping and sweepkicks are awesome.

[-Demosthenes-]

My friend told me a story about how the wepons were outlawed and the people developed other ways to defend themselves, is there any truth to that?

[Skye]

neurocomp, I'm guessing you mean capoiera, which is a dance and game as much as fighting. It's pretty hard to tell, but it most likely came from dances that the slaves brought with them from Africa, IIRC mainly the Bantus. Of course I'm sure Monkey originally taught the Bantus.

[Glider]

YT2095 said in post # :

...same happened with Karate`(open hand).

 

Karate = 'Empty hand'

 

 

[iglak]

Skye said in post # :

It's pretty hard to tell, but it most likely came from dances that the slaves brought with them from Africa, IIRC mainly the Bantus.

this is one of the ones that YT was talking about, it was (as far as i know) invented by whatever slaves those were , and taught to the other slaves so that they wouldn't be defenseless, but was disguised as a dance.

[YT2095]

Glider said in post # :

 

Karate = 'Empty hand'

 

 

 

quite right! LOL what was I thinking? hehehe

[Radical Edward]

Well the Chinese invented them and the Japanese and everyone else pinched the ideas. Martial arts were born from hundreds of years of killing people very effectively. It's like some of the killer pressure points we learn, I have to wonder how many people died in that discovery, or how many legs were snapped in the understanding of weaknesses.

[atinymonkey]

Mhph. Not as many as you'd expect. The basic principles are rooted in acupressure and acupuncture, which dates back to around the bronze age. If a point in the body is a center for nerve clusters, hit it and you'll cause pain. It was the sophistication of acupressure and acupuncture that mapped out the body for the martial arts, the points were know by most educated people. Obviously the advantage of martial arts is that hitting almost any squishy part of the body is going to cause pain, the fact they had a better idea where to hit just helped the development.

[YT2095]

that`s a little over simplified and also only applies to a mere few of the marshal arts. times of day are also important along the meridians as is breathing (inhaled or exhaled a pressure point will have a different effect when the subject is in either state). as it is also with the heart during or between a beat, all this is vital to know, dim mak, dim chi, dim su

Chi Gong and the usage of would be a good place to research also, as these criteria are critical for it`s implementation

[atinymonkey]

It applies to all the martial arts that involve pressure points, and that's most of them. It dosen't really apply to Tai Chi, for instance, as Tai Chi is a martial art that involves no kicks or strikes (nor is it really a martial art at all). The derivation of all martial arts comes from the same source, Karate from Shao Lin and Ninjitsu/Jujitsu from Budo Kai/Samurai.

 

The principles of breathing, balance and Ying/Yang, are something that you find common to all physical practice. Ask a sprinter how they breathe when they run, and sit down ready for a lecture.

 

And Karate originally meant Chinese Hand (Kara means Chinese or Empty and Te means Hand) in recognition of it's origin. It' only cropped up in the 1930's, and is the source of nothing new (apart from Chuck Norris, obviously).

 

Plus, Ninjitsu, bugger all to do with assasination. Assasins were sometimes Ninjas, but Ninjitsu is just a style of fighing. Samurai study it as well as 'Ninjas'. It's like saying Karate is a style of pub fight, if you see it in a pub.

[YT2095]

"Karate from Shao Lin " are you kidding here!???

 

Karate has nothing whatsoever to do with Shao Lin Kung Fu and you`de be on the nail

 

"And Karate originally meant Chinese Hand (Kara means Chinese or Empty and Te means Hand) in recognition of it's origin. It' only cropped up in the 1930's, and is the source of nothing new (apart from Chuck Norris, obviously). "

 

we`de already established that!

 

Ninjitsu is indeed originaly the art of assasination/stealth!

[Skye]

Tai chi has plenty of kicks and strikes. There's also some interesting throws and wrist/finger locks, and the sword stuff. Obviously the depth of the Toaist teachings here attracted Monkey.

[atinymonkey]

YT2095 said in post # :

"Karate from Shao Lin " are you kidding here!???

 

Karate has nothing whatsoever to do with Shao Lin Kung Fu and you`de be on the nail

 

'Kung fu' means 'apptitude' or 'skill', but actually it's proper translation would be "kuo-shu". Only westernesrs use the term Kung Fu, as it is not a martial art but a term relting to the ability to perform a martial art. Kung Fu as we know it in the west is derived from Shao Lin, as it just comprises of all the styles people wanted to take. Shao Lin or Shaolin is the base of martial arts in China.

I appreciate the input, but you are off base. Here are a few links to the origin of Karate.

http://www.shsu.edu/~stdgxd13/karate/origin.htm

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/jka/origin.html

http://www3.sympatico.ca/jeffrey.muir/jeffkori.htm

 

"And Karate originally meant Chinese Hand (Kara means Chinese or Empty and Te means Hand) in recognition of it's origin. It' only cropped up in the 1930's, and is the source of nothing new (apart from Chuck Norris, obviously). "

 

we`de already established that!

 

Well, we had establised it wasent 'Open Hand' but 'Empty Hand'. I was highlighting the original traslation was 'Chinese Hand', which I pointed out to highlight the origin of the art.

 

Ninjitsu is indeed originaly the art of assasination/stealth!

 

No, Ninjitsu is a method of fighting (Shinobi-jutsu). A Ninja did study Ninjitsu, but it has nothing to do with assassination. I pointed out, Samurai also study Ninjitsu in a teaching method called 'Budo Kai'. It's ether based around endurance or stealth, which lends itself quite well to assasination. The fact that some groups trained assassins in ninjitsu meant they were called Ninjas. Just because all Ninjas study Ninjitsu does not mean all Ninjitsu students are assassins, you are mixing cause and effect. It's like a gun argument, not all people who own rifles are snipers and not all snipers are assasins.

I've studied 8 separate martial arts, including Ninjitsu (Togakure Ryu, which isn't really the hstorical style), and I'm not a Ninja. In fact, I was explicitly told the difference between the two before I was allowed to learn that style.

 

Sorry about giving a long reply. I got a lot of thease things drilled into me while I was growing up. Chinese Godfather, learing martial arts, teaching students. I tend to lecture too much given half a chance :/

[atinymonkey]

Skye said in post # :

Tai chi has plenty of kicks and strikes. There's also some interesting throws and wrist/finger locks, and the sword stuff. Obviously the depth of the Toaist teachings here attracted Monkey.

 

Tai Chi and Tai Chi Chuan are two different arts, one is martial and the other Taoist health. Stick a master of Tai Chi into a fight, and they would lose.

 

Taoism btw, not Toaist

[Skye]

Yeah, or taiji quan, or whatever makes people think they're cool.

[Guest Aries0186]

My mom says martial arts originated from China....

 

But I'm not sure about that....

[iglak]

on a quick search, i found this site.

the first bit is about a game of some type, i have no idea what, but the second part is a quick description about all of the martial arts listed.

 

i recommend you take most of this information with a grain of salt, but it's still useful for a basic understanding.

 

what martial art do you want to know about? you could prabably just search for it if you know precicely what you need.

 

<edit> oh, and the third part is mostly about that game too

[mossoi]

A lot of the martial arts evolved separately and in parallel, one can't say that the Japanese copied the Chinese. Many were developed as a means for the lower classes to overthrow the military classes and were practiced using farm tools or hidden behind dance and sports to mask the fact that they were fighting arts.

 

I have spent many years studying the Japanese martial arts which were not covert and were practiced proudly and gained respect.

[biggles]

My friend told me a story about how the wepons were outlawed and the people developed other ways to defend themselves, is there any truth to that?

 

Maybe he was talking about Okinawa island and it's occupation by Japan. After they took military control over the territory, all of the weapons were banned and confiscated as a mean to prevent insurrections. As it was a violent occupation, people were forced to seek up other means to defend them, like using farming tools like the nunchaku as a weapon against the samurais.